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Ruby 'wanted to be a hitman' article


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A couple of years ago, I came across an article from a small community newspaper in Avon Park, Fla. that spoke with the daughter of a friend of Ruby's in Dallas.  She credibly recounted their friendship and her father said that Ruby had originally told him he had moved to Dallas to become a hitman for the mob.

When I went back to the link I had saved, the story could not be found.  And it's not available in the newspaper's archives, either.

If anyone wants to try to track it down, here's the original link:

http://highlandstoday.com/hi/local-news/ap-woman-living-link-to-kennedy-assassination-oswald-murder-20150402/

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Ruby was sent to Dallas from Chicago as a front man to deal with police, politicians and competition as part of a team in an attempt at expansion of territory and power in the late 40's. Not a hit man.  It was partially successful.  They were in competition with people from New Orleans,  I. E. Marcello.  Ultimately they worked together for the benefit of all.  Ruby paid off cops.  Set up high stakes poker games they skimmed.  High dollar bets.  Provided prostitutes.  Marcello provided the racing wire.  Smuggled drugs to and through Dallas.  Fed Ruby some of the prostitutes/dancers.  Check out Civello, Campisi, the Zuroma Club where Henry Wade and Earl Cabbell visited.  They were his bosses.  Who was the first to visit him in jail? 

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12 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

Ruby was sent to Dallas from Chicago as a front man to deal with police, politicians and competition as part of a team in an attempt at expansion of territory and power in the late 40's. Not a hit man.  It was partially successful.  They were in competition with people from New Orleans,  I. E. Marcello.  Ultimately they worked together for the benefit of all.  Ruby paid off cops.  Set up high stakes poker games they skimmed.  High dollar bets.  Provided prostitutes.  Marcello provided the racing wire.  Smuggled drugs to and through Dallas.  Fed Ruby some of the prostitutes/dancers.  Check out Civello, Campisi, the Zuroma Club where Henry Wade and Earl Cabbell visited.  They were his bosses.  Who was the first to visit him in jail? 

I don’t know if he was the first visitor but I remember seeing Marcello’s man in Dallas on some documentary who regularly brought Ruby food from his Italian restaurant. Like a scene from a Godfather movie. 

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Joseph Civello was the Dallas Boss.  Joe Campisi was an underboss, the first person to visit Ruby in jail.  It's likely one of his underlings passed the message to Ruby that "we' have to cleanup a situation for the government.  If You don't do it, Code of Omerta. Your family first, then you.  Thus his speed induced hotfoot the next two days.

I think the killing of Oswald was the one use of the Mafia in the JFK assassination.  Out of necessity.   As a result of the CIA recruitment of them in Castro assassination attempts.   They weren't use In the assassination but when the patsy escaped and got caught by the DPD they were brought in.

Fantasy speculation.  Dulles called Angleton.  Angleton called Harvey.  Harvey  called Roselli.  Roselli called Giancana  or Marcello directly, maybe one of the guys from Florida.  Likely Marcello told Civello have Jacob Rubenstien hit Oswald.

Joe Campisi reassured Ruby they had his back, good lawyers paid for (discreetly). He also probably reminded him, subtly of course, they owned the Sherriff's Department and DPD if he should speak inappropriately what would happen. 

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On 12/7/2017 at 7:26 PM, Ron Bulman said:

Ruby was sent to Dallas from Chicago as a front man to deal with police, politicians and competition as part of a team in an attempt at expansion of territory and power in the late 40's. Not a hit man.  It was partially successful.  They were in competition with people from New Orleans,  I. E. Marcello.  Ultimately they worked together for the benefit of all.  Ruby paid off cops.  Set up high stakes poker games they skimmed.  High dollar bets.  Provided prostitutes.  Marcello provided the racing wire.  Smuggled drugs to and through Dallas.  Fed Ruby some of the prostitutes/dancers.  Check out Civello, Campisi, the Zuroma Club where Henry Wade and Earl Cabbell visited.  They were his bosses.  Who was the first to visit him in jail? 

Ron, agree with your take on Ruby.

In regards to the whole dual ( JFK & Oswald) assassination story, even a great writer of fiction might not be able to dig up such a jewel of crazily colorful dramatic character, background, occupational and psychological make up content as the real life Jack Ruby possessed. 

Simply such a nutty mix of psycho/emotional conflict ( Sigmund Freud himself would have considered Ruby a gift to his study ) along with so many incongruously intersecting personal and professional activities and interactions with others ( average to lowest income working people to highest rung murder ordering mobsters? )  you wouldn't believe it if it wasn't all true! 

On one hand, as many people who knew Jack Ruby personally stated, he was often a rough edged but soft-hearted teddy bear who did thoughtful things for others in need. Offering small amounts of cash, maybe even part time work, buying sandwiches, loaning his car. 

At other times he's pounding the holy crap out of drunk and disorderly patrons of his club ( once he stops in the middle of pounding someone's head into the ground to exclaim "what am I doing?" to witnesses) or anyone who makes derogatory comments about Jews that he overhears. He carries brass knuckles and keeps a gun close in case he really needs to make a point. One of his fingers was partially chewed off in one of these dog fight brawls.

Ruby deals with booze and drugs and people afflicted by these things but does not allow himself to use them. Does he smoke? Not sure.  Ruby lifts weights, hits the gym bag, swims, ice skates and eats quite sensibly which indicates he has a controlled and disciplined sense of his personal physical health.

His mental health is another matter.

Ruby reportedly questions his own sense of his sexual inclinations and image. He has sex with women but seems insecure about long term, co-habitation relationships. 

He reportedly once tells a local newspaper writer he wished he had gotten into a more respectful occupation than strip joint owner.

Ruby certainly is involved with setting up others with willing young stripper type female companionship. And you can be sure Ruby was rewarded in some way. Most likely favors.

My guess is his clientele included those very high up the power position ladder.

Setting up high stakes card games? Probably.

Gun running? Same.

Ruby did know and even interacted with some of the highest Mafia figures. Lewis McWillie was one of Ruby's closest contacts to that world. 

I also agree that Ruby was ordered to kill Oswald, probably under the same circumstances as Ron described. 

And Ruby did lie a lot.

His Warren Commission testimony often appears to be that of a mentally confused and even disturbed person, but I sense that many of Ruby's answers were purposely presented in this contrived way to avoid telling more of the truth.

In my opinion, Ruby obviously wasn't in on any serious action planning and implementation part of the assassination. He wasn't mentally stable enough to be so. But he may have known ahead of time that it was coming down. And I will always believe that Ruby was ordered and allowed to kill Oswald, with certain members of the Dallas PD being in on this caper.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Joe Bauer
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On 12/8/2017 at 3:26 AM, Ron Bulman said:

Ruby was sent to Dallas from Chicago as a front man to deal with police, politicians and competition as part of a team in an attempt at expansion of territory and power in the late 40's. Not a hit man.  It was partially successful.  They were in competition with people from New Orleans,  I. E. Marcello.  Ultimately they worked together for the benefit of all.  Ruby paid off cops.  Set up high stakes poker games they skimmed.  High dollar bets.  Provided prostitutes.  Marcello provided the racing wire.  Smuggled drugs to and through Dallas.  Fed Ruby some of the prostitutes/dancers.  Check out Civello, Campisi, the Zuroma Club where Henry Wade and Earl Cabbell visited.  They were his bosses.  Who was the first to visit him in jail? 

Ron:

is there any source for your interesting remark about Henry Wade and Earl Cabell visiting the Zuroma Club? It looks like Cabell and Wade shook hands with Dallas mafia. Any details on this line would be of great interest.

 

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On ‎12‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 12:44 PM, Andrej Stancak said:

Ron:

is there any source for your interesting remark about Henry Wade and Earl Cabell visiting the Zuroma Club? It looks like Cabell and Wade shook hands with Dallas mafia. Any details on this line would be of great interest.

 

Yes Andreji.  It comes from a book I don't recommend because of it's the mob did it conclusion and that Oswald was made a patsy by them.  However it does have a lot of interesting information on the relationships of the mob, police and political interactions in Dallas in the 1950's and early 60s.  The book is "Betrayal in Dallas" by Mark North.  It is well documented and has many pages of legal documents and letters.  Letters starting in 1950 from LBJ to Henry Wade and vice versa.  They fawned over each other, LBj called him Hank.  Same thing with letters to and from Hoover.  One from Barefoot Sanders.

From page 237.  Dallas based Italian-American social club, the Anonymous Club, met every Thursday evening in a private residence...Membership included Dallas mob boss Joe Civello...Club name was changed to Zu Roma Club in 1958 after Civello's arrest at a national mob summit meeting in Appalachian New York.  Weekly guest lists were published in locally circulated Texas Tribune, an Italian-American news letter.  May 3, 1958, future congressman Joe Pool,  State Congressman Barefoot Sanders, appointed u s Attorney for North Texas by JFK in 1961, future Federal Judge, LBJ pal.  July 7, 1962, Mayor Earl Campbell, district Attorney Henry Wade, Sheriff Bill Decker, candidate for congress Joe Pool.  Theses are from reproductions of the original paper.  Keep in mind these meetings centered around a meal and an illegal poker game.

https://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Dallas-Street-President-Kennedy/dp/1626361223/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512951680&sr=1-1&keywords=betrayal+in+dallas 

Edited by Ron Bulman
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On ‎12‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 9:42 PM, Mike Kilroy said:

I don’t know if he was the first visitor but I remember seeing Marcello’s man in Dallas on some documentary who regularly brought Ruby food from his Italian restaurant. Like a scene from a Godfather movie. 

The Campisi family's Campisi's Egyptian Lounge at the time.  Ruby took a couple of out of town guests there for a steak the night before the assassination.

Now it's just "Campisi's" with five locations.  I've ate at the one in Irving.

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7 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Yes Andreji.  It comes from a book I don't recommend because of it's the mob did it conclusion and that Oswald was made a patsy by them.  However it does have a lot of interesting information on the relationships of the mob, police and political interactions in Dallas in the 1950's and early 60s.  The book is "Betrayal in Dallas" by Mark North.  It is well documented and has many pages of legal documents and letters.  Letters starting in 1950 from LBJ to Henry Wade and vice versa.  They fawned over each other, LBj called him Hank.  Same thing with letters to and from Hoover.  One from Barefoot Sanders.

From page 237.  Dallas based Italian-American social club, the Anonymous Club, met every Thursday evening in a private residence...Membership included Dallas mob boss Joe Civello...Club name was changed to Zu Roma Club in 1958 after Civello's arrest at a national mob summit meeting in Appalachian New York.  Weekly guest lists were published in locally circulated Texas Tribune, an Italian-American news letter.  May 3, 1958, future congressman Joe Pool,  State Congressman Barefoot Sanders, appointed u s Attorney for North Texas by JFK in 1961, future Federal Judge, LBJ pal.  July 7, 1962, Mayor Earl Campbell, district Attorney Henry Wade, Sheriff Bill Decker, candidate for congress Joe Pool.  Theses are from reproductions of the original paper.  Keep in mind these meetings centered around a meal and an illegal poker game.

https://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Dallas-Street-President-Kennedy/dp/1626361223/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512951680&sr=1-1&keywords=betrayal+in+dallas 

Thanks, Ron, for your detailed information. I will read the book, although will keep a cautious eye during reading as you have some doubts about the book. I find most as most extraordinary that Decker, Wade and Cabell partnered high members of Mafia in Zuroma club. This means that there was only one in-between connection between Mayor Cabell and Jack Ruby. Cabell admitted in his testimony for the Warren Commission to have heard about Ruby, and it were Earle Cabell and Elgin Crull who pressed Curry to parade Lee Harvey Oswald in front of cameras in the basement of Police department on Sunday morning. 

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1 hour ago, Russ Connelly said:

Apologies if this has been posted before but I found this short video footage of Jack Ruby from 1960 engrossing.  Does anyone know who it is standing with him?  Some of the comments are suggesting it is George Senator.

https://flashbackdallas.com/2017/12/07/newly-discovered-footage-of-jack-ruby-1960/

It does look like Senator to me.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsenator.htm

I don't know about the Minox camera.  Were they not kind of expensive for the general public.  Isn't that why some have questioned why Oswald had one as he was usually almost broke.  Some have speculated his was provided by an employer for use in work assignments.

The film/pictures are interesting.

After looking at the link provided inside the article it does look like a Minox.  I'd never seen a picture of one.  It does mention them being a luxury item.

Edited by Ron Bulman
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